Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 553 - 536: Highlights of "Legend of Infinity Fantasy

Chapter 553: Chapter 536: Highlights of "Legend of Infinity Fantasy

Lilith was puzzled, "Why is that?"

In her impression, Endless Fantasy Legend hadn’t been a particularly memorable game.

Certainly, the game had been successful, with its mechanics involving the four elements of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire receiving high praise, along with many die-hard fans.

Even now, some players hailed Endless Fantasy Legend as the most imaginative game ever.

Its art style, mechanics, gameplay, and the unlimited possibilities of bugs had all been topics of much delight among players.

However, perhaps because Endless Fantasy Legend was too balanced, and everything was so well coordinated, it lacked a strong personality.

Unlike "Ascension" and Blood of Lies, which left a striking impression.

Qin Fengliang explained, "I considered it from several aspects.

"First, since we’re trying to deceive the players as much as possible, we have to first make sure they can play.

"As you mentioned, one major issue with Nine Swords was that low-spec computers and phones simply couldn’t run it.

"If our only goal was to lose money, that would be fine.

"But we need negative emotions, and players can only generate a lot of negative emotions if they deeply engage with the game.

"Before they enter the game, it’s like the contract hasn’t even been established, and even if they get angry seeing the loading bar stuck, we essentially can’t collect that negative emotion.

"Although there have been many rounds of optimisation, the Myriad Editor isn’t as problematic as before, but a phone is still a phone, always limited by performance or cooling issues, and needs good optimisation to function.

"We, of course, have to do our best to optimize, but we can’t rely solely on that.

"We still have to start with the game itself to ensure foolproof performance.

"And the art style of Endless Fantasy Legend has very low system requirements, making it truly the best suited for porting to mobile."

Lilith nodded slightly, completely agreeing.

Shengjing Group hadn’t taken this into account when developing Nine Swords.

"What’s wrong with requiring high specs? Optimize it later!"

This idea seemed fine at first glance, but on closer reflection, the problem becomes clear: it’s too optimistic.

Optimization can’t solve every problem; it’s not true that as long as you are willing to optimize, it will inevitably run on mobile.

Editor architecture, game asset resolution, gameplay mechanics, etc., all affect the game’s system requirements.

Often, even with maximum effort in optimization, the end result still can’t achieve the desired effect, forcing an upper limit and leaving players furiously complaining.

Such incidents had occurred not once or twice.

Lilith wasn’t concerned about the game not making money, but turning away most players meant being unable to harvest their negative emotions, which was absolutely unacceptable.

"Hmm, makes sense, continue," said Lilith nodding her head.

Qin Fengliang continued, "Secondly, Endless Fantasy Legend itself is quite a distinctive game, serving as a sanctuary for a group of hardcore players with very strong territorial senses.

"Other games may also have hardcore fans, but they are not so starkly hostile towards pay-to-win mobile games.

"For example, games like Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon, Prometheus, City of the Abandoned Gods, and Heartbeat Dream, despite also having loyal players, show a significantly higher tolerance for pay-to-win mobile games according to player profiles."

Lilith said approvingly, "Well reasoned!"

Not all single-player game players are hostile towards pay-to-win mobile games, and there is considerable variance among players of different types of single-player games.

For a game like Prometheus, which inherently includes online multiplayer gameplay, players tend not to oppose non-functional aesthetic micro-transactions and are relatively more tolerant towards mobile games.

Players of games like Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon and City of the Abandoned Gods often simply play whatever is fun, without a strong preference.

And then Heartbeat Dream, which carries a strong anime-style taste, perhaps has a large part of its hardcore audience already amongst mobile gamers.

Endless Fantasy Legend, on the other hand, is a special case.

It doesn’t require high specifications, and with some optimization, it can run on mobile.

However, because its gameplay emphasizes imagination and innovation in gameplay, and being one of the most avant-garde, boundary-pushing types of buy-to-play single-player games, it is a frequent fixture at major awards ceremonies and particularly favored by the proudest single-player gamers.

And these players are often the ones who most disdain pay-to-win mobile games.

For Lilith, she had no interest in the superiority or inferiority between games, as long as they could generate negative emotions in players, any method would do.

Then...

Transforming "Endless Fantasy Legend" into a mobile game might be seen as a brutal backstab for the game’s loyal players?

Qin Fengliang added, "Moreover, this action is done by Nitiandang officials, which makes it even more unforgivable."

In comparison, if another company were to create a mobile game based on the model of "Endless Fantasy Legend," those loyal fans might be angry, but they probably wouldn’t be completely broken.

After all, there are so many game companies in the world, and mutual imitation and borrowing are quite normal.

But Nitiandang themselves shouldn’t be doing this!

This would likely turn love into hatred for the players.

"President Li, next, we need to target several highly praised aspects of ’Endless Fantasy Legend’ and perform targeted destruction.

"We can’t modify them beyond recognition, as that would directly deter the old players, which is not conducive to luring them in and eliminating them.

"We must superficially retain aspects but actually create something completely different, making the old players come with excitement and leave disappointed. That would be the optimal choice."

Lilith became even more spirited, "Good, I’ll handle this personally. You provide the supplements.

"Let’s see what are the highly praised aspects of ’Endless Fantasy Legend’..."

She opened "Endless Fantasy Legend" on her computer again, beginning to refresh her memory of the game.

"First and foremost, the major highlight is definitely this unique system of ’Earth Wind Water Fire + Time’.

"It maximizes the advantages of the Myriad Editor, creating complex elemental reactions and providing players with various special abilities.

"In a vast open world, using the abilities of earth wind water fire truly achieved the ’endless fantasy’ effect.

"Although we imposed various limitations on these abilities, the damn bugs essentially nullified these restrictions.

"To date, the old players still praise this system, and new players are continuously drawn in.

"Thinking along the lines of pay-to-win mobile games...

"Let’s dismantle it!

"We’ll separate these elements and assign them to different characters, players can only trigger the corresponding reactions after drawing these characters!

"For instance, players really like ’Justice from the Sky,’ right?

"Using water elements to bind the stones, then using the impact force of a Fire Elemental Bomb along with the inherent gravity of the stones, allows the stones to fall like scattered blossom from the sky, causing area damage on the ground.

"But now, we’ll split these elemental abilities; if players only inherently possess water abilities and want to use this tactic, they’ll have to draw an additional earth element character and a fire element character.

"Hehe, this should definitely break the old players’ spirits!"

Lilith was very satisfied and noted this down.

In "Endless Fantasy Legend," several abilities could be used in combination and really tested the players’ imagination.

In the standalone mode, these abilities are inherently possessed by the protagonist and this almost barrier-free acquisition method has been accepted by the old players.

However, if a new pay-to-win mobile game is released, acquiring these abilities would require either spending money or extensive playing, which would undoubtedly break many old players and generate substantial negative emotions.

"But... that alone might not be enough.

"Using this method of separation, each element can at most split into three or four characters, totaling only about twenty characters, which is far from enough for a pay-to-win mobile game’s character pool.

"Well... that means we also need to design unique gameplay mechanics and story backgrounds for these characters."

Lilith scratched her head, quickly realizing that realizing her idea would not be as easy as it seemed.

Games are like that; an idea might seem simple, but implementing it reveals all sorts of complications.

Two seemingly similar gameplay elements could turn out to be vastly different.

Just having an idea is worthless, the key is how to perfectly execute it.

Qin Fengliang added, "Another point, map size.

"President Li, although the map of ’Endless Fantasy Legend’ is already not small, if we want to accommodate so many characters, we need to expand it further.

"Or, should we consider adjusting the original ’Earth Wind Water Fire + Time’ system?

"Modify some elements, add some new ones, or even hang a sheep’s head but sell dog meat, creating a system that looks similar but is actually completely different.

"The old players would absolutely be furious and curse, wouldn’t they?"

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